U.S. prosecutor to run police watchdog office

Boss vows to keep OPS independent

June 07, 2002|By Eric Ferkenhoff, Tribune staff reporter.

Vowing she would not be "window dressing" for the Chicago Police Department, Assistant U.S. Atty. Lori E. Lightfoot was named Thursday as the new boss of the Office of Professional Standards that investigates police shootings and allegations of police brutality.

Lightfoot, 39, who has spent time in private practice with one of the city's most prominent law firms, has been a federal prosecutor handling cases of both white-collar and violent crimes for the last six years. She was introduced Thursday by Police Supt. Terry Hillard and will take over Aug. 1 as chief administrator of OPS, which is separate from the internal affairs division and is designed to be independent of the Police Department.

She replaces Callie Baird, a former public defender who left the OPS job in January to start a law firm with Hillard's former chief of staff, Thomas Needham.

Hillard called Lightfoot, an Ohio native and graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, a "tenacious prosecutor." She practiced law as an associate with Mayer, Brown & Platt before joining the U.S. attorney's office in 1996.

Lightfoot was reprimanded two years ago by a federal Appeals Court panel for filing a misleading motion in an extradition case. The panel called the incident an "isolated lapse" and noted "the glowing testimonials that we have received concerning her character and her professional competence and performance."

Asked about the case Thursday, Lightfoot said she disagreed with the reprimand but took lessons from the incident.

Lightfoot said there would be challenges in investigating complaints of police abuse but said her mission, to"do the right thing," is simple.

It is no secret, she said, that there are "some inherent and long-standing tensions among the communities served by OPS," and that the office has been criticized for going soft on police and failing to be independent.

"The last thing that I would ever be is window dressing," she said. "I'm never going to be a part of something . . . that isn't independent."

Still, she knows there is a perception problem. To change that, Lightfoot said she would field community leaders' concerns and try to make the office more "transparent."